GREAT SEABIRDS!

August turned up some amazing seabird action, including some mindblowing rarities!

Like so many things in this most extraordinary of years, August was exceptional. The month was so packed with ‘firsts’ and ‘potential firsts’ of one kind or another that this round-up of the key rarities will necessarily seem almost flippantly brief.

However, as always, a more complete picture may be painted in the county-bycounty reports which follow.

Let us start with more crazy seabird activity. Tubenoses were particularly prominent (this is the group which includes the shearwaters, petrels and albatrosses). Arguably, the most outrageous ‘claim’ of all was of a possible Bermuda Petrel (aka Cahow) off Berry Head, Devon (27th). As you can see from our article on the species on page 90, there are only a few hundred of these Pterodroma petrels in the world.

However, geolocator studies have apparently demonstrated that Cahows winter in the Atlantic just west of Ireland (and one was photographed in Irish waters in 2014); so, one wandering over to UK waters is not unthinkable.

Continuing the theme, there were also serious claims of a Band-rumped (aka Madeiran) Storm Petrel seen off Pendeen, Cornwall on 22nd. This is a species with just two accepted UK records (one off the self-same Pendeen in September 2007; and one off Scilly on July 2007). Whether the detailed notes and sketches taken at the time will be enough to get this latest record through the rarities committees remains to be seen.

A similar struggle awaits the third of our tubenose trio: a probable Scopoli’s Shearwater seen near the Queensferry bridges in the Firth of Forth, Lothian, in the second week of August. Hanging out with a Cory’s Shearwater, this bird, with a worn ‘white’ panel in one wing, showed the structure and wing pattern of the Mediterranean-breeding Scopoli’s. There is currently only one officially accepted individual, off Scilly in August 2004.

This year’s purported individual was apparently also seen off the Yorkshire coast in July and on 15th was perhaps also seen passing Mundesley, Norfolk.